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Saturday, November 26, 2005

We are ready to celebrate Advent as a time of anticipation of the blazing fact of the Incarnation of God in real time on real earth. I spent part of today writing many times on Christmas cards "best wishes for" whatever blessings I thought the recipient would need.

However, wishing is an easy step downwards from praying. Wishing, viewed within a life of faith, is kind of suspect. It's asking for something without the requisite acceptance of God's Will for whether we get it or not. Wishing is usually pretty specific and demanding: we wish that we don't get a cold before Saturday, or that the football team wins this Sunday. Of course, we should pray to be open to God's decisions for us instead, since He has a plan for us for good, not evil (cf Jeremiah 29).

It's scary how shockingly evil wishing can become, a silent mental weapon. "I wish that skinny little size 4 would gain thirty pounds and see how she likes it." "I wish that old so-and-so would lose his job he's always bragging about." "I wish that the cops were around that corner and pull over that rude driver." Maybe we know wishing can be a mere incantation, so we can lapse into these awfulnesses....but they do our souls no good.

So I'm working on banishing the phrase "I wish that" from my vocabulary, even at this wishy time of the year. However, I still retain a few wishes that I won't bother God with:

1. I wish there were fewer Brazil nuts in cans of mixed nuts. They take up valuable cashew space and they taste like wax-infused chalk. 2. I wish I liked goat cheese as much as I like Cheez Whiz. It tastes like they leave pieces of actual goat in it, but it's so damn classy. 3. I wish I could find a color of lipstick that doesn't make me feel like I'm walking into a room mouth-first.4. I wish office Christmas parties were fun.and finally5. I wish the leaders of all the world would require, by force of law, that car manufacturers put the gas inlet on the SAME SIDE of every single blessed brand and model.

If that's how you feel about goat cheese, don't try goat milk. It tastes rather like light cream in which a leg of lamb has been marinated overnight. I do like goat cheese, myself, and will tolerate Velveeta, although as a cheese vice I prefer string cheese. I had a friend once who was very fond of Cheez Whiz, and I could not dissuade him even by pointing out the other purpose for which he used the word "whiz."

As for Brazil nuts--that's why they put them there. Cashews are expensive. I have never been able to think of Brazil nuts the same way since someone told me what they (white people, that is) call them in the South.

As for point 5, I entirely sympathize with the frustration, but I don't think I'd wish for an increase in the power of world leaders. They don't seem to make very good use of what they have now.

I wish they'd always put the gas tank openings on the driver's side so you don't have to walk ALL around the dang car. And then I could just leave the driver door open and keep listing to the baseball game as I fill up.